Abstract
In a series of within-subject experiments employing a two-choice delayed conditional discrimination task, pigeons chose correctly more often when kind of correct choice and kind of reinforcer were perfectly correlated than when uncorrelated. Correct choice behavior fell to chance levels when the correlation was reversed or when it was removed by using only one kind of reinforcer. Implications for mediation theories are discussed, with the conclusion being that, although the possibility that instrumental mediators are present in this situation cannot be dismissed, the overall pattern of results indicates that classical mediators are of principal importance in this type of task.
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This research was supported in part by Grant MH29244 from the National Institute of Mental Health and by a grant from the Graduate School of the University of Minnesota.
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Peterson, G.B., Wheeler, R.L. & Armstrong, G.D. Expectancies as mediators in the differential-reward conditional discrimination performance of pigeons. Animal Learning & Behavior 6, 279–285 (1978). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03209614
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03209614